Utilizing the internet for research purposes is an increasingly critical tool. Here's a quick list of 5 to look at. Further below is an extensive table with descriptions.

Google is one of the largest search engines, and a very common place to begin an internet search. The results can be varied in how closely they relate to the item that you are curious to find information about.

Bing is a new powerful search engine, which offers a menu on the homepage to narrow your search.

Wolframalpha is an excellent tool in assisting students with math problems and answers. It can compute problems and give answers to various math questions. It has its limitations it can't solve proofs, but it can still point you in the right direction.

Findhow.com is a how to website. There are lots of different topics immediately available. They usually have some kind of current relevancey like preventing icedams in the winter. You can also type in your own questions. The site redirects you to other sites that can or may be able to provide answers.

Wikepedia offers an free online encyclopedia, which is usually one of the top results in the major search engines. It offers a wealth of information, but its accuracy is sometimes in question.

Here is a list of all of the tools to choose from. This list comes from cooltools4schools.com. The list is seperated by:

  • Seach Engines
  • Research Resources
  • Asking Questions
  • How To Videos and Tutorial
  • Others


Search Engines:

Addictomatic

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Find news, videos, photos, blogposts and more. Set out by source.

Search Crystal

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Search and compare multiple engines in one place.
It is a search visualization that enables you to compare, remix and share results from the best web, image, video, blog, tagging, news engines, Flickr images or RSS feeds. You can embed as a widget on your site or blog.

Wolfram Alpha

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An ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. Enter your question or calculation, and watch it compute the answer. Based on a new kind of knowledge-based computing..

FindHow

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Find how to do things. This site gives you access to trusted, reliable How-To content on the Internet.

Info Please

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General searches plus almanacs, biographies, dictionaries, encyclopaedia, spelling.

Dogo

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Fodder, cool sites and global news for young minds.

Findthatfile

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Media file search engine. It locates media (documents, audio, video, etc). Searches media files rather than webpages from all over the Internet.

Joongel

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Search the internet by category.
tour

Nibipedia

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Video search.

Spezify

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New visual search engine that collects search results in different media formats (e.g. definitions, images, Flickr photos, quotes, wikipedia articles), arranges them on a desktop and can be dragged around as an (almost) infinite collage.

Veezzle

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100% free search stock photo service, no advertisements.
It takes a long time for our servers to index the free stock photos of the internet but we are confident we can reach our goal, we have a strong algorithm in place that index’s thousands of stock photos every hour.

Yolink

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Find and go to what you're looking for, then export your findings to your choice of social networks, collaboration, or document generation tools.

Research Resources:


John Locker

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Online documentaries listed under categories. Great classroom resource.

Teachers.tv

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Thousands of educational programmes on TV and online.

Blinkx

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Video resources

PrimarySchool.tv

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A way for Primary School teachers and learners to access relevant video content on an IWB and/or Internet enabled TV. All video content is filtered using Safe Search.

SnagFilms

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Watch free documentaries.

SchoolWAX TV

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Educator approved videos so everyone can learn in a safe and comfortable environment. The perfect resource for students who are working on their homework or just need a little extra help on any given subject. Teachers can use the animations and videos to capture their students’ attention and enrich classroom lessons.

Pics4Learning

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Includes both photographs and clip art, organized into topics,
free to use in an educational setting.

NonFictionVideos

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Online documentary archive.

Piclens

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Download add-on for Firefox.
Transform your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for online photos and videos.
Fly through 1000s of YouTube videos faster than you've ever imagined possible.

Footnote

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Browse and upload original documents.

KidsKnowIt

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Making education fun and free. Free educational Websites For the young, and the young at heart.
Search the databases of the Children's Learning Network.


Newseum

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The world's most interactive museum.

Ultimate Research Assistant

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The Ultimate Research Assistant is an advanced Internet knowledge mining technology. To use this tool, simply type in the name of a topic and click the Generate Research Report button. The tool will perform research on your topic and generate a concise research report summarizing your topic.

Xtimeline

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Find timelines of events, or easily create and share timelines with pictures and videos.

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This site was designed to teach young and old about the wonders of birds.

Arkive

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Images of life on earth. A unique collection of thousands of videos, images and fact-files illustrating the world's species.

British Library

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The British Library Online - 4 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles, 58 million patents, 3 million sound recordings, and so much more.

Online TATE

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A range of online resources for teachers

Gallery of Writing

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Read published work, contribute your writing, start a local gallery, search galleries.

Studyjams

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Studyjams are interactive units on different maths and science themes. Lots to choose from.

Udemy

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Online courses

KnowItAll

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ETV's educational Web portal, a collection of fun, interactive websites for K-12 students, teachers and parents.

Asking Questions:


Answers

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Provides answers from the world's leading reference publications and contributions from our Q&A community.

Ask

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Ask for information from web, images, news, videos, maps, and lots of answers.

Wiki Answers

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Enter a question or phrase. With over 5,000 categories, there are Q&As for everyone. Browse and discover new categories.

Yahoo Xtra Answers

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Ask a question, share knowlede, help others, earn points.

'How to' Videos and Tutorials:


Graspr

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Instructional videos in a number of categories.

5 Min

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How To and DIY Videos

Lookah.tv

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How to tutorials on popular software programmes.

Wordpress tv

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Videos and how to tutorials and support for all things Wordpress.
Intro video

Woopid

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Watch free video tutorials for all your computer and gadget questions. Find a quick answer or learn something new.

eHow

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Find step-by-step instructions on how to do just about everything.

wikiHow

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A collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. You can add your own tutorials to wikiHow. It currently contains 48,436 articles.

WonderHowTo

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Find out how to do almost anything.

Tutsearch

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Over 100 tutorial sites.

PSDeluxe

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Photoshop tutorials for beginners and professionals. Professional adobe photoshop tutorials for any skill level. Learn Photoshop with fun.

Teacher Training Videos

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Videos created for teachers to help them to incorporate technology into their teaching. JThere is also a special page of videos for students interested in multimedia, where you can learn Flash, Director and Photoshop.

Other Tools:


Jog the Web

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Make a tour of your websites on a theme, and comment on them. Students could
use it as a bibliography.

Ergo Research Skills

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Step-by-step guide shows you how to break down research tasks into manageable parts, and find good quality relevant information to make your assignments the best they can be.

Earth Album

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Explore the earth in photos. Some of the most stunning photos in the world
courtesy of Google maps and Flickr.

Kwout

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Quote a part of a web page as an image with an image map.
Add the bookmarklet to your favorite browser.

GreatSummary

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Quickly get the gist of a document, webpage, or any text selection of your choice. Identify the key topics of a document while eliminating redundant information

WhereIsNow

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Tells you where to find the very latest version of a given document. Whether you are looking for a catalog, a law or a regulation, or maybe somebody's personal contacts, you can reach its latest available version without wasting your time searching the web or asking around.

AnyClip

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Search for actions, quotes, objects, movies, actors from videos.

Bookmarking and Retrieval:

Precipitate

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Search for and launch the information you have stored in the cloud from within Spotlight or Google Desktop for Mac. It currently supports Google Docs (including Google Apps accounts), Google Bookmarks and Picasa Web Albums

DeweyDigger

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Explore knowledge via the Dewey Decimal Classification